The Orihuela Council has said that it will send a request this week to CaixaBank and that within 48 hours it will receive the guarantee of more than 1.2 million euros that was deposited in the bank has by Urbana San Miguel SL under an urban planning agreement, twenty years ago, back in 2002 .
This will finally enable the widening of the CV-941 road bridge in the Lomas de Cabo Roig sector crossing the AP-7 motorway in Orihuela Costa, in order to create a pedestrian footpath.
The builder, who began the construction of new homes in December 2004 deposited the guarantee in the old Bancaja. However, the pedestrian walkway over the motorway was never built despite promises from everyone involved.
In November 2018, the Ministry of Public Works authorized the construction of a new bridge, parallel to the current bridge to the south. It was then that the council gave the company a period of 15 days to start the work, warning it that if it did not do so, the Administration would carry it out using the bank guarantee, but nothing was done.
After years of problems and continuous neighbourhood complaints, although measures were announced last March, it was not until July when the Orihuela plenary agreed to seize the guarantee Last March, José Aix, the Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Urban Development, said the work would be completed by May 2023 at the latest.
Meanwhile, Residents Associations, such as the Cabo Roig and Lomas Neighborhood Association, the Orihuela Costa Federation of Associations and the Orihuela Costa Neighborhood Association in Action (Avoca), have warned on multiple occasions, of the serious dangers to those who cross the bridge on foot every day, the only one that connects many of the inland urbanisations with the beaches, the health centre, the pharmacy and supermarkets.
With a single traffic lane in each direction and no pavements, pedestrians are forced to walk along a hard shoulder that is barely 40 centimetres wide, putting their safety at risk. The problem is aggravated for people with reduced mobility or for those with small children in pushchairs.
The space available in which to walk, is further reduced by the amount of brush that is only very rarely cut back and neither is there any lighting making such manoeuvres even more dangerous during hours of darkness.
Avoca confirmed that it requested a series of provisional measures to improve safety until such time as the bridge is built. These petitions, which were made as a matter of urgency almost a year ago, have also been repeatedly demanded of the City Council by the Síndic de Greuges, but still without any result from the Orihuela council.
